Source
Packaging, bottle caps and damaged fittings
Materials indexMaterial record / Plastics
Packaging, bottle caps and damaged fittings
Recovered plastics
Plastic is only useful as a manufacturing input when its identity is known. We intercept clean streams, sort them by polymer and colour, and use heat and pressure to turn loose fragments into solid, workable forms.
Why it’s worth recovering
Known before it is mixed
Capturing plastic at source gives the material team a far better chance of identifying it and keeping contamination low.
Colour comes from the waste
The flecked surface records the original pieces. Colour sorting becomes part of the design process rather than an afterthought.
Offcuts can stay in the loop
Suitable clean trim can be shredded again, keeping workshop waste in the next material batch.
From waste stream to part
The production process.
- 01
Identify and sort
Items are grouped by known polymer. Unidentified or incompatible pieces are removed rather than guessed at.
Step 1 - 02
Wash and dry
Residue and labels are removed so moisture and contamination do not compromise the next stage.
Step 2 - 03
Shred
Material is reduced to a controlled flake, with colour mixes recorded for repeatable visual recipes.
Step 3 - 04
Heat and press
Flake is placed into tooling, heated until it bonds and cooled under pressure into a stable form.
Step 4 - 05
Machine and assemble
Panels or moulded parts are cut, drilled and joined with reversible fixings where the design allows.
Step 5
Technical data
What it is, and how it behaves.
- Incoming form
- Known, clean single-polymer streams wherever possible
- Typical families
- HDPE and PP assessed separately; polymers are not assumed to be interchangeable
- Preparation
- Sorted, cleaned, dried and shredded to a controlled flake
- Forming
- Heat and pressure into sheet or shaped tooling
- Machining
- Cut, routed and drilled after process trials
- Joining
- Mechanical fixings preferred to preserve separation and repair
Manufacturing into new things
The polymer sets the process
Temperature, pressure and cooling are established for the identified stream, not copied blindly from another plastic.
Pattern is specified as a range
Samples set the colour balance while allowing the natural variation that makes recovered material recognisable.
Parts are drawn for another cycle
Simple geometries and removable fixings make future separation and reprocessing more realistic.
Where it doesn’t belong
- — Unknown or mixed polymers cannot enter production without identification.
- — Exact colour matching is not guaranteed between batches.
- — Load, heat and fire requirements must be tested for each application.
Sample recipe / Plastics
A product sample begins with a controlled recipe.
This record keeps the source, preparation and production decisions together, so a promising sample can be reviewed and repeated.
MadeBy material recipeSample 01 / indicative
- 01 / Feedstock
- Known HDPE or PP
- Single-polymer streams assessed separately
- 02 / Particle profile
- Controlled flake
- Cleaned, dried and shredded
- 03 / Colour recipe
- Source-derived fleck
- Recorded as an achievable visual range
- 04 / Forming route
- Heat and pressure
- Pressed as sheet or in shaped tooling
- 05 / Finishing
- Cut, route and drill
- Reversible fixings preferred
- 06 / Quality checks
- Identity, bond, cooling
- Confirmed for each batch and component
Illustrative sample recipe. Temperature, pressure and cooling depend on the identified polymer and component geometry.
From source to specification
A stream becomes useful when its limits are understood.
Material development begins before the workshop. Separation at source protects identity and quality; sampling establishes variation; testing matches the material to an application. Only then can repeatable production be discussed.
Preparation
Sorted, cleaned, dried and shredded to a controlled flake
Best next job
chairs, stools, bedside tables and interior components
Evidence
Samples, process notes and application-specific checks are kept close to the object.
Material record
The story should survive the sale.
Each application is intended to carry a useful record: what the object is, where its material came from, how it was prepared, what care it needs and what to do when its first use ends.
- 01 / Meet the object
- 02 / Follow the material
- 03 / Read the making
- 04 / Keep it useful